SERENITY II aka ETERNITY (v1.1)

A really fantastic set of levels for this era of doom mapping. The midis are super fun! The levels themselves are mostly good, and a definite improvement on Serenity 1. There are some genuinely good ambushes in some of these levels too. While by modern standards this is a walk in the park, these ambushed prob would have been a good challenge back in 94.

A huge improvement over the first part. The maps are fun, filled with interesting encounters and a diverse enemy variety. The architecture is simple but efficient. I particularly like how a couple of the maps make you circle around back to the starting area. The music is fun and cheesy, although a couple tracks failed to loop on my end. Overall, the difficulty is balanced, except for map 2, which stands out thanks to a very nasty trap.

A lot better sights and tougher than S1, with another pack of cute midis. 

Serious improvement from Serenity.

Eternity doesn't play easy on you at all. From the get go we have really amazing architectures to look at and some nasty enemy traps. The map design also has a great improvement on layout as there are a lot of interesting things to look, sector trickery and a lot more of height variations than on the previous episode.
Most maps has a lot of monsters closet and quite a good amount of demons to kill, so the fun and the challenge is assured. 

The music plays a nice role in here, as it adds to the atmosphere quite a lot, specially the Vangellis Theme from Bladerunner.
Also, Moanin' is one of my favourite jazz songs ever, so this mapset was really nice to play.

Even when it comes kinda as cheesy and silly, it feels really cool.

Great visuals and great encounters.

For real, these two authors really knew what they were doing by now, and they showed it!
Next episode surely will be beven better :)

Thanks to both, Bjorn Hermans and Holger Nathrath, as this plays amazing for sure.

...Now, to the Infinity...

...and Beyond!

Eternity is a great example of a sequel that is better in virtually all regards to its predecessor. The maps are more polished and detailed. Their layouts are also more refined, with interesting level themes and architecture that keep each map unique and memorable. Most importantly, the difficulty is harder with more enemies and deadlier traps.

This rise in difficulty is most noticeable in the first few levels. Similar to the beginning levels of Thy Flesh Consumed, you will need to take great care of an abundance of enemies with dwindling supplies. While it does ease off later on, difficulty all around is still a decent bit higher than Serenity, so if you had any trouble playing Serenity you may want to tone down the difficulty level. You can get most of your arsenal earlier on compared to Serenity, so long as you pay attention for secrets. Keeping your eyes open and paying attention to your surroundings is also more important than ever for Eternity, and not just for fighting the enemies and avoiding the map hazards. Several otherwise inconspicuous lifts will be denoted by the presence of white bars along the wall. Sometimes this leads to secrets, other times it is the way forward. Several times you may also be put into fights where you have to deal with both monsters and the map working against you simultaneously. You will have to act fast and choose your targets wisely if you want to make it out of each fight alive.

There isn't much more to say about Eternity that hasn't already been said about Serenity. It took a bit longer to beat and it is certainly harder, but the levels are still simple but pleasant to look at and have an intense and clever gameplay focus. If you liked Serenity you are almost definitely going to love Eternity.

The sequel to Serenity, and a better WAD all round. By this point the authors were obviously more experienced mappers and it shows in both visuals and gameplay, with both these aspects being of generally better quality than even Serenity's better maps.

Overall, this is more challenging than Serenity, but once again the difficulty progression is a bit backward, with E2M2 reaching borderline bullshit territory with its scarcity of ammo, health and forced damaging floor runs, making the map more frustrating than anything else. After this the difficulty drops off, and although it does start to climb slightly over the remainder of the WAD, I feel that this is the same as Serenity in that the hardest maps were at the start.

They still haven't got the hang of secrets either, and there's a couple of instances of the infamous E4M3 earrape - as well as mandatory secrets but there were less of those here than in Serenity, and mostly easy to find. The worst offender for me was when I spent a good 10 minutes searching for the blue key in E2M3 - only to find out it was in an unmarked secret behind an inconspicuous looking marble face.

As a result I think my least favourite maps here were E2M2 and 3. This had me worried about the remaining levels, but they turned out to be pretty good. Particularly liked 5 and 7.